Elsie
Jerusha Covell was the youngest child and only daughter of William
S. and Maria E. Covell, was born at the Old Covell homestead in
Scott Township on March 29, 1893. She grew to young woman-hood there
and received her early education in the public schools of Scott
Township, attending what was then known as the Gifford school. After
graduating from the common school grades, she attended Tri State
College at Angola, Indiana, preparing herself to be a teacher. For
over twenty years she was one of Steuben County’s successful school
teachers. Teaching at Scott Center, Metz, Flint, at the Star School
and for several years in the Angola City School.

She
attended Columbia University in New York City on two different
occasions. On June 18, 1935 she was united in marriage at Auburn,
Indiana, with Cass Budnik of Detroit Michigan and they left by
automobile the same day for Redlands, California. Redlands was their
home for about one year when they moved to Parkerk Arizona, where
they lived a short time and then they moved across the Colorado
River to Parker Dam, California where they lived for another year.
They then moved to Tucumcari, New Mexico, where they lived until
about April 1939, when they moved to Everett, Pennsylvania where her
husband was employed by the Pennsylvania Highway Commission as a
civil engineer.